1. Field of the Invention
The present patent application for industrial invention relates to a coffee machine and to the relevant coffee extraction method.
2. Description of Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 And 37 CFR 1.98.
WO2015/051924, in the name of the same applicant, discloses a coffee machine provided with a load cell that weighs the cup wherein the liquid coffee is dispensed and with a control logic that stops dispensing coffee when the desired weight is reached, in such manner to fill the cup with the desired quantity of coffee. However the coffee machine disclosed in WO2015/051924 does not receive any information on the weight of the dose of powder ground coffee used to make one cup of coffee. Therefore the quantity of water that is dispensed to make coffee is selected without considering the weight of the ground coffee contained in the filter.
As it is known, the quality of the liquid coffee served to customers strongly depends on the quantity of the powder grounded coffee dose that is inserted in the filter of the coffee machine.
WO2012/138327 discloses a coffee grinding machine comprising a load cell to weigh a ground coffee dose contained in a filter ready to be used in a coffee machine. However WO2012/138327 does not disclose any coffee machine connected to the coffee grinding machine to receive information on the weight of the ground coffee dose. Therefore, even if the ground coffee dose contained in the filter has an optimal weight, the quality of the coffee will depend on the quantity of water dispensed to extract coffee from said dose.
Consequently, in spite of using a coffee grinding machine as the one disclosed in WO2012/138327 and a coffee machine as the one disclosed in WO2015/051924, a technician of the field is not able to set an ideal infusion rate, meaning the rate between powder coffee and liquid coffee.
WO2015055343 discloses an espresso coffee dispensing machine, comprising a dispensing assembly and a balance to detect the quantity of ground coffee contained in a filter and the quantity of dispenses product.
The purpose of the present invention is to eliminate the drawbacks of the prior art, by disclosing a coffee machine and a coffee extraction method that provide high-quality liquid coffee with an optimal infusion rate between powder coffee and liquid coffee.
Another purpose of the present invention is to disclose a coffee machine that is precise, reliable, versatile, practical and automated.